*** VTE ***: Failed to load terminal capabilities from '/etc/termcap'

[Ralf Hildebrandt]

After todays upgrade of

2012-03-22 10:10:24 upgrade libvte-2.90-9 1:0.31.0-0ubuntu2 1:0.32.0-1ubuntu2
2012-03-22 10:10:24 upgrade libvte-2.90-common 1:0.31.0-0ubuntu2 1:0.32.0-1ubun2
2012-03-22 10:10:24 upgrade gir1.2-vte-2.90 1:0.31.0-0ubuntu2 1:0.32.0-1ubuntu2
2012-03-22 10:11:05 upgrade python-vte 1:0.28.2-3ubuntu1 1:0.28.2-3ubuntu2
2012-03-22 10:11:06 upgrade libvte-common 1:0.28.2-3ubuntu1 1:0.28.2-3ubuntu2
2012-03-22 10:11:06 upgrade libvte9 1:0.28.2-3ubuntu1 1:0.28.2-3ubuntu2

All terminals start with the warning:

*** VTE ***: Failed to load terminal capabilities from '/etc/termcap'

and the cursor keys don't work anymore.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: libvte-2.90-9 1:0.32.0-1ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-19.30-generic 3.2.11
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-19-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 1.94.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Mar 22 10:40:35 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release amd64 (20101007)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: vte3
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-03-19 (2 days ago)

[Ralf Hildebrandt (ralf-hildebrandt)]

Rebooting caused this error to go away. Odd, really odd.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

Launching gnome-terminal with --disable-factory avoided this issue (which is consistent with Ralf's report that rebooting fixed it). It seems that the running gnome-terminal is in a strange state.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

The relevant code is different in the current version (even the error message has changed), so I think this may be a result of invoking gnome-terminal with a newer vte version than the running factory is using

[Stefan Tauner (stefanct)]

not only the cursor keys dont work, also enter does no longer work in my case and that is pretty bad.
it happened today while i was upgrading from 10.10 to 11.04 (via do-release-upgrade in gnome-terminal) (so most probably other versions involved).
since such an upgrade takes quite some time it is very annoying because you can no longer work in new terminal windows for that period. a reboot after the upgrade "solved" it here too.

[DavidIMA (yoso1690)]

*** VTE ***: Failed to load terminal capabilities from '/etc/termcap'

[DavidIMA (yoso1690)]

i don't undestand how repare this problem. Can you teaching me?